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By Root 621 0

Spending eighteen long hours on an airplane, breathing in all that stagnant air, always seemed to bring on sniffles and a cold, so I wasn’t surprised when, that evening, I felt a sore throat coming on. In China they do not have pharmacies as we know them, but there are full-service apothecaries almost every few blocks, and there is always a qualified herbalist or doctor on staff to answer any questions and recommend herbal remedies. These pharmacies are similar to our twenty-four-hour emergency-care clinics, but not half as intimidating or expensive. It goes without saying, you need to be accompanied by a bilingual speaker to translate your needs to the medical staff. Being able to obtain teas and herbal remedies by a mini private consultation had always appealed to me, and since I had been keeping bees for a while, I was particularly on the lookout for any bee remedies. Propolis extracts, royal-jelly tablets, and bee-pollen jars were just a few of the antidotes I found at the Chinese apothecary. I wondered why we did not have such products so readily available back home in the United States.

I explained my throat and head discomfort to my business associate Mr. Wang, who translated to the herbalist. He recommended I take some loquat-honey syrup for my throat and cough, and a tiny bottle of clear liquid essential oils called Bai Wan You for headache relief. Without hesitation, I opened up the tiny bottle of Bai Wan You (white flower oil) for a sniff. Clearly, it was peppermint and eucalyptus oils to rub on your sinuses and temples. It felt really good, soothing, and wholesome knowing exactly what was in the bottle. Upon arriving at our hotel, I immediately took a swig of the loquat-honey syrup and was surprised at how mild and pleasant it tasted. It was the most delicious cough syrup I had ever tasted. The ingredients list stated it was simply a mixture of honey and loquat, a Chinese plum. It was soothing because of the honey and pleasant because there wasn’t any alcohol in it, as there is in cough medicines back home in the United States. This got me wondering why U.S. cough medicines had alcohol in them at all. In China, I found honey used in cough medicines, herbal teas, candies, and even facial creams. I began to notice honey was more important than sugar as a sweetener, and I liked that.

During this working trip, I was wearing what I call my honey eyes, meaning I began to see honey and bees everywhere. Unbeknownst to me at the time, honeybees have a rich history in ancient China. I purchased as many honey items and other bee products as I could find to take home with me. The acquisition and understanding of such products plainly became an obsession, and I surrendered to it. The Chinese taught me many things, especially about natural, honey-based remedies.

APITHERAPY

Apis means bee in Latin, and apitherapy is the ancient practice of using bee venom and other products of the honeybees, including honey, pollen, royal jelly, and propolis, along with essential oils, to treat a variety of conditions and to maintain health and harmony within the body. My enthusiasm for honey and its supernatural healing properties led me to the American Apitherapy Society (AAS), a nonprofit membership corporation that promotes and educates people about the use of honeybee products to maintain and improve health. I found this ancient wisdom riveting, so I signed up and attended one of the society’s yearly conferences. Theo Cherbuliez, a native of Switzerland and a psychiatrist and physician who served as president of the AAS for more than a decade, led the conference.

The conference is a series of workshops and training called the Charles Mraz Apitherapy Course (CMAC). Charles Mraz was a beekeeper and author who founded the AAS in the 1930s and served as its executive director. During his lifetime, he used bee stings to treat people with arthritis pain, multiple sclerosis, and other autoimmune diseases. His book Health and the Honeybee was published in 1995 and includes his personal journey as a pioneering healer along with case studies.